Tag Archives: blogging

I talked recently about a habit I’m trying to break, but today I’d like to share a habit I’m trying to pick up (or at least become better about!)

Commenting on blogs.

And generally being more supportive and “vocal” about the online content I engage with. Because the keyword there is engage, right? I have this blog. I have a podcast. I work remotely for clients who need help with marketing and web content. So, I’m constantly consuming online content. But often times, it’s just that…consuming, not engaging with.

I guess, initially, my motives are a little selfish. I feel like I should interact with blog posts (and other content) the way I want people to interact with mine. But, I think it’s more than that:

– I want to be encouraging to people I think are doing rad things online…
– I want to feel like we’re all in this together (see also: work remotely. y’all are my co-workers, mk?)…
– …and honestly, I want to do my part to make sure this is happening.

But sometimes that sort of very public, online love-fest feels overwhelming to me. It is so much easier to be a lurker. To feel uncomfortable about admiration or networking or a comment that doesn’t really add all that much to the conversation other than — “wow, this was really fun to read!”

So, I’m seeking input…

What do you think? Is this an area you’re awesome at? What advice would you offer? TELL ME EVERYTHING!

Congratulations! Your blog has graduated from a fun hobby and creative outlet to something that is pulling in a bit of money on the side. This is an amazing development! But now what???

If you’ve decided to roll with it and turn your much-loved baby blog into a full-fledged side hustle, there are a few things to keep in mind. Blogging can be a fun way to make some extra cash, but only if you’re prepared to put in a fair amount of work. While Finding Delight is by no means my full time job, I do consider it profitable enough to be included in the lil pie chart in my brain that is titled “work.” Unfortunately, there are a lot of resources out their for folks lookin’ to turn their lifestyle blog into the whole dang pie but not that many for those of us who are happy with keeping it at a good, hearty slice.

With that in mind, here are a few things I wish I had implemented as soon as I decided to consider my blog a money-making side hustle…

Keep It Separate

First, successful blogging is just one chunk of your life. So it needs it’s own chunk of time! Schedule dedicated time for your blog that is separate from the hours you need for your main income source but also separate from your home life, too. It took me awhile to get a hang of this and I would often let blog stuff leak into both realms. My saving grace in this department was definitely my perfect planner. This thing lets me schedule my day down to the half hour–which might sound crazy to some! But if I can see where in the week I have “blog work” scheduled (always highlighted in a pretty pink!), I’m less likely to pop into WordPress when I should be working or email that company back when I’d rather be hanging out with my husband.

Making Time For You

I think there’s a tendency among bloggers to stack their plates too high. When something that started out as a hobby becomes a part-time job, it can be hard to reconceptualize. It doesn’t feel like work. However, you might find that there is great potential and power in slowing down and allowing some time for yourself. Last week I didn’t put up a single blog post because I wanted to give my full attention to a new project I was really excited about. And that’s ok! Sure there are things I do, like affiliate linking, that allow my site to make money without me around. But for the most part, I just don’t worry about it anymore. Think about this time away from blogging as the space in which content can be born! You allow yourself time to read books, or play games (www.finalfantasyxvapp.com#home), or travel, or bake a cake…whatever it is that you enjoy…and then you’ll have these rich experiences and opinions to share with your readers later!

Know The Reader

If there is anything that means success in the literary world, it is the ability to know your readers well, inside and out. And the same goes for blogging – if you can make sure that you really have a strong grasp of your audience, then you will be able to provide enjoyable and useful content. This becomes a careful balance when your blog is a side-hustle. You might start to feel pulled in a lot of directions. I know I did. You want to create the content you enjoy creating…but also get paid to do so by brands. You want your friends and family to continue stopping by…but you also want to grow your audience to include new folk. I put new posts to the test with a series of questions:(In order of importance)Will I enjoy creating this?
Will the readers I currently have gain something from this?
Can I optimize or monetize in some way?
Could this encourage new folk to join my tribe?

Any blogging-as-side-hustle hopefuls out there? I’d love to hear your questions, challenges, or thoughts! ❤
And bloggers who already have this blogging-for-biz thing nailed down — What would you tell someone just starting out on this journey? xoxo

A new series in which I share lists which I hope will help you to get to know me better. Why? Because I started this blog what feels like forever ago and there’s bound to be some new faces peering in once and awhile! So these posts are kinda like an introduction (or a reintroduction for those who’ve been with me since the jump!). A nice to meet ya, so glad you stopped by, now STAY AWHILE! Why lists? Because I love making ’em! (+ it’s the summer and I can give myself some grace when it comes to not posting overly-elaborate blog posts.)

PRE-P.S. This will be my last list in this summer series. HOWEVER, I’ve really enjoyed sharing a bit more about myself in this manner…SO – I’ll plan to keep adding lists here and there throughout the coming year. It just won’t be every Thursday. Hope you enjoy!

My blogging goals…

Continue to organically grow my readership and network.

Find more ways to meaningfully engage with other bloggers.

Reach out to more brands about collaborations.

Brainstorm (and keep track of) series ideas, not just post ideas.

Create an email onboarding sequence to send out when someone subscribes to my mailing list.

The Sunshine Blogger Award is an accolade given by one blogger to another in recognition for work that they find creative, inspiring and positive. I was super honored to be nominated and leapt at the chance to join in the fun!

The rules of the award are:

Thank blogger(s) who nominated you in the blog post and link back to their blog.

Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you.

Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions.

I genuinely enjoy doing it! There have been times throughout this little blog’s life where writing posts has had to take a backseat…but I think keeping a full editorial calendar is fun and I don’t beat myself up if not every idea comes to fruition.

Long before Finding Delight was a twinkle in my eye, I kept an online journal for 4 years — from my junior year of high school through my sophomore year of college. I really liked having a place to share about my life where I could connect with other people doing the same. I enjoyed knowing that someone would read what I wrote. I felt like it was the perfect creative outlet for my little introvert heart. Blogging is just my flashier, more grown up version. 😉

From a more practical standpoint, I work as a freelance marketing consultant and web content manager. My blog is a great way for potential clients to get to know me (freelancing is all about selling yourself alongside what you can do!).

What’s your favorite way to keep in touch with folks that have graduated/moved away?

While I love snail mail and social media, nothing beats taking an hour long walk through my neighborhood while on the phone with a bestie.

How has a mentor inspired you to take a risk? Or how have you inspired yourself?

A mentor gave me the push I needed to start this blog! During a conversation about how I could get to where she was in her career, her biggest advice was to start a project that would encourage me to write every day, as well as practice design, branding, and marketing. Finding Delight was born shortly after!

At the time, sharing about myself on the internet felt like a HUGE risk! I thought, “My life isn’t all that exciting. Will anyone even care? What if no one reads it.” But, of course, that wasn’t the point.

At my desktop computer – although I’m known to fire off a few paragraphs into my phone notes when inspiration strikes. Here’s a look at my desk set-up. It has stayed pretty much the same since our move to Alabama…except now, instead of being about a foot away from our bed, I have my very own home office!! *trumpets*

What is that one productivity tool (app/website) you enjoy using for your blog?

I’ve recently started using Asana which has really helped me visualize larger projects as a bunch of smaller tasks as well as keep track of deadlines. I enjoy assigning due dates to my goals (even when they’re totally arbitrary) because it helps me stay on track. Plus, sometimes a unicorn flies across the screen when I mark things complete–and I’m all for that!

What is a big career challenge you have overcome?

I think narrowing the scope of what I wanted to do. Starting out, I faced two big personality traits; 1) interested in everything, and 2) decisionphobe. That meant I was excited about a lot of possibilities, but would stall out in planning mode. Once I realized I can be interested in things without needing to make money doing them, I had a lot more time to build a career around things I was actually good at.

If you could only read one book, over and over, for the rest of your life, what would it be?

I don’t want to live in a world with only one book! (Perhaps that would be enough incentive to start writing my own!!) I don’t often re-read books because my reading list is just too long for circling back around! But if I had to, I would choose one of these.

Finding your blogging niche is one of the best and most powerful ways to grow your audience and start making a profit from your little corner of the internet. Admittedly, I’m interested in LOTS of things (you probably are too) and I’m still working on whittling down what I include on my blog. However, over the years I’ve come to realize that my posts about books, career, travel/packing, and life management systems (like capsule wardrobes and meal plans) perform the best…and not just that…I enjoy creating them, too. They’ve become my own lil “lifestyle” niche! Sure there are other things I’d love to write and share about. But they’re better left outside of Finding Delight.

So, what are some of the steps I took to find this mystical niche? Read on for everything you need to know.

I Looked Closely At My Interests And Passions

To find your niche, you first need to look closely at your interests and passions. You’ll feel far more fulfilled when what you’re researching and writing and SHARING align with what you love. So, one thing I did when trying to find my blogging niche was write out a MASSIVE LIST of everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) that I was interested in, passionate about, or enjoyed doing/researching. Then, I went in with a few highlighters to start identifying some themes.

Next, I evaluated my skills and talents to figure out how to best use them for creating blog content. Of course you should love your niche, but you need to be good at it too. For example, there are a lot of systems I’ve successfully put into practice in my own life to eliminate decision fatigue. I would say I’m skilled at creating them. So I started working them into my blog posts. Not just because I enjoy coming up with them but I’m good at it.

Finding your niche means knowing your weaknesses, too. I love the idea of posting elaborate recipes on my blog (I even did a fair amount of recipe posts back in the day) but I’m just not that great of a cook. I don’t have the patience for taking process photos as I create a dish because cooking itself is already taking up all my concentration. I don’t enjoy it because I’m not that great at it! (I do think there are some exceptions to this wherein you blog about something you want to learn about a la Julie and Julia or if you’re charting a fitness journey. But overall I’d say steer clear of finding a niche based on a weakness.)

I Figured Out What Problems I Could Solve For Other People

I started to think about what problems people were facing and how my blog posts might be able to solve them. Now I know this sounds high and mighty but think about it! When you type something into the search bar of Google, what are you looking for? Usually a solution, right? It might be how to DIY a really expensive piece you fell in love with at Anthropologie or home remedies for seasonal allergies or even the answer to some obscure celebrity-gossip query.

Solving problems for people is a key aspect of your niche. It’s also an almost guaranteed way to increase readership. (When people are searching on Google or Pinterest for an answer–they might just click on YOUR solution!) But I also wanted to take current readers into consideration when evaluating the type of problems I could solve.

I’ve conducted two reader surveys on my blog over the years. Both of which asked readers to answer,

“What challenges or frustrations are you facing in your life right now?”

Many of their answers went on to become topics I tackled in future blog posts!

[Related: Librarians solve people’s problems every day! USC has an awesome library science degree if this is a path that speaks to you beyond the world of blogging – learn more on their website.]

I Learned From My Competition

Your competition can be used to your advantage. When identifying my specific niche within lifestyle blogging, I began to look at other blogs less as something to emulate and more for what I could do differently than them. What could I do better? Not really in a competitive way…or in a wishing them ill-will sorta way. But my life experience and expertise and passion are uniquely mine. So my niche and my blog should be uniquely mine, too! I want ALL of our blogs to succeed because of who we are and what we love. Not because we’re trying to tick a bunch of boxes of what a blog “should” include. Make sense?

I Constantly Experiment

When you think you’ve figured out your niche, run tests and experiments. No one needs to know about these tests and experiments…they’re just for you! They will help you to figure out whether your ideas are something that should be pursued in the long term. Whether your readers will love it, if your traffic will grow, and most importantly, if you will enjoy it. If you find some posts in the new niche are meeting all of the above — take note! And then look into ways you can double down on that sort of content.

But don’t be afraid to drop something that hasn’t worked and move on to the next experiment. You might decide you want to start reviewing brunch locations everywhere you travel to…and then find you’ve started resenting an activity you once enjoyed. Or what about a crochet tutorial that you spend hours photographing and uploading…only to find it got 5 views?

Not everything will work, but you won’t know until you try! And you can always move on to the next great idea!

What steps did you take to find your blogging niche? Any content ideas you love in theory but just didn’t work in practice? SPILL!

Y’all know I love ballin’ on a budget, right? Well, one of my favorite tips to give fellow budget ballers is, “DIVERSIFY YOUR INCOME STREAMS!” Luckily, there are lots of ways to achieve this. Read on to discover some of my favorite suggestions on how to earn extra money…

Freelance – There are so many options for freelancers today. All you need to do is a quick search online and you will find tons of websites designed forfreelancers. Many of them work like this: Someone looking for a job to be completed will post a listing, and interested parties will make an application. If your application is accepted, you submit your work and the money will hit your bank or PayPal account. If you have skills that can be put to use over the web — such as writing, photography, or web design–this could be a great fit!

Start a blog – A blog won’t make you money overnight, but if you have something you are passionate about (a niche!), starting a blog is a great step towards generating income in the future. Once your blog is going, and you’ve built up an audience, there are a number of ways to make money — from sponsored posts to affiliate marketing.

Invest – Another way to make money is by investing. However, this is not something you should dive straight into. Take the time to read feedback, such as these thinkorswim reviews, which enlighten you to various brokers and investment products so that you are informed on the pros and cons. Before you can invest, you need to make sure you are aware of your attitude to risk and that you only invest within your means and your comfort levels.

Share economy – The share economy is booming…and for good reason! You could drive for Lyft, deliver Instacart orders, or rent out your spare room on Airbnb. But if these aren’t for you, there are other ways to earn a bit of cash while also helping out others. Evaluate what you have and consider if sharing might be of value to someone. For example, if you live in an area that is close to a lot of businesses, you could look into renting out your driveway.

Sell your belongings – Last but not least, it is likely that you have some stuff in your house that you aren’t particularly fond of anymore, nor do you need. You can sell these items online to make a little easy money. Need some inspiration? Check out this video —

Looking for a second income source but not sure what would be a good fit? Let’s bounce around ideas in the comments! Or feel free to shoot me an email.

Do any of you have any “wins” when it comes to diversifying income streams that you’d like to share? If you do, drop ’em below!

What are you up to today? I’m looking forward to the leftover broccoli soup we have stowed away in the fridge, and taking FULL advantage of the fact that every season of E.R. is on Hulu. (Chet’s never seen it!) Oh those lazy, winter weeknights in. Have a great day, and here are some links I think you might enjoy…

Hi folks! Sorry for the radio silence but the past week has been crazy! Last Wednesday, it started to become quite clear that Hurricane Irma was going to make a direct hit on Florida. After the 11 am models came out, showing the possibility of a Miami landfall, we loaded up the car and hit the road. The traffic was insane! And gas and hotel rooms were scarce. (You can read where we ended up spending the night on this Instagram post.) About 28 hours of driving time later, we FINALLY reached our destination. Crazy to think we were part of the largest mass evacuation in U.S. history. The devastation in Florida will be long-lasting and I’m so grateful we had a safe place to go to weather the storm. Now we’re just waiting around to make sure our return trip is as uneventful as possible. (There are lots of reports of road closures due to flooding and gas shortages.) In the mean time, here’s what I’ve been reading…

Happy April, Finding Delight readers! This year, I decided to approach my New Year’s resolutions a little bit differently. I wrote out all the months in my journal and have filled in things I want to work on in 2017– 2 items per month. Not every item is filled in yet. I want to give myself space to grow over the year, to not set my resolutions in stone.

My hope is that, once something is set into practice for a month, I’ll continue the habit throughout the year.

I’d like to share results and thoughts at the end of each month because accountability. (You can check out past months HERE.) Here’s how I did in March…

March Resolution #1. Up my comment game on other blogs.

I read, or at least scroll and skim, a RIDICULOUS amount of blog posts each week. As I mention in my very first post ever, I’ve been a fan of the medium since the early days. I had an online journal in the early aughts and, when that faded into obscurity, I followed several lifestyle bloggers with cult-like consistency.

When I was settling on resolutions, I tried to find a balance of betterment within every aspect of my life. So when I reflected on how I could make positive changes in how I approach blogging, I realized I need to stop being a lurker and start joining the conversation. (Not to mention, according to The Secret, you get what you give. And I’m tryin’ to get more blog comments, too. #keepinitreal)

So in March, I joined a few blogger Facebook groups and have tried to engage with folks as much as possible. We trade comments and brainstorm collaborations. It’s been a lot of fun!

There are still a TON of blogs I visit on the regs that I don’t often (or ever) comment on. I hope they’re happy to let me continue lurking. Haha!

Going forward: I’ll continue to stay active in the blogger groups I’ve joined. I’ll find a few non-group, new-to-me homies and resolve to comment on their posts with regularity. I’ll respond to the comments on my own posts when I want to keep the conversation going!

March Resolution #2. Keep fresh flowers in the house. Don’t scrimp on the anticipation aspect of travel.

Yes, I switched this resolution mid-month. Whoops! But hear me out… When planning out each month’s resolutions in my journal I thought committing to a nice grocery store bouquet of flowers on the regular would be a worthy pursuit. Fast forward to every time I went grocery shopping in the first week or so of March and I realized I needed to scrap this idea. As I picked up and put down bouquets and mulled over price tags, I came to the conclusion that these colorful blooms just wouldn’t bring me enough happiness to justify their expense. And I’m ok with that.

So! Did I accept defeat and call it quits on having 2 resolutions for March? NOPE! Back to the drawing board.

I think shying away from anticipation is a holdover from college speech & debate. We traveled to so many tournaments throughout the year that there wasn’t really enough time to put a whole lot of thought into the process ahead of time. We just packed our suitcases and off we went. And then we did again the next week.

But now! I’m leaning into the planning and anticipation of travel. Googling, asking for recommendations, packing lists, “to-do before I leave” lists, etc, etc!

Going forward: I won’t try to trick myself into thinking my trips are spontaneous…I’ll relish in all the happiness they can give me before I even embark!!!

Alright friends, let’s keep things going in April!

How are YOUR New Year’s Resolutions going? Three months down! Tell me how you’re doing in the comments below (#accountability) or feel free to email me – ebeth.berger@gmail.com – if you’d like to keep it private. You got this!

Hey guys! The other night I was clicking around on a few favorite bloggy-type sites (as ya do) and was struck by how many bloggers feature lists of cool things they want to do in the coming year or before they turn a certain age. What a great way to challenge yourself to mix it up. Plus, the added benefit of blogging = a)accountability, but also b)sweet content each time you check an item off the list!

Basically my blog was green with envy and I needed to hook her up with a list POST HASTE! But wait a minute, I thought to myself, we’re already 2.5 months into the new year and my birthday is FOREVER away. Can I really just put together a list like this on a random Tuesday??

Short answer: Yes. When you write the blog, you make the rules.

Long answer: I created this blog to encourage myself to keep looking for, and FINDING, delight. Actively searching for life’s unexpected pleasures is something I try to do on the daily. But making a list of things I expect to bring me joy works too. I don’t need to feel bad about not having an “occasion” to set myself up for delight. I can just make a list and start checking things off!

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Hi there! Finding Delight is a lifestyle and lifelong learning blog written and curated by me in Alabama. Along the way, I attempt to tackle the rough real world with books, budget-livin', brainpower and all the beautiful stuff you can find when you really look. Won't you join me? The true delight is in the finding out.